Anniversary program 2023
The 2023 anniversary prayers are on-site in the traditional holy Tibetan temple and online via Google Meet (details below).
- Thursday 24 August at 7.30 pm: Commemoration of Founder Geshe Loden’s passing. There will be a cuppa and supper served from 7 – 7.30pm just before the session if you would like to join us.
- Sunday 27 August at 4 pm: Commemoration prayers on Geshe Loden’s passing (no Path to Enlightenment), followed by afternoon tea.
- Sunday 3 September at 7.30 pm: Prayers for Geshe Loden’s final equipoise. There will be a cuppa and supper served from 7 – 7.30pm just before the session if you would like to join us.
The three prayer sessions will include the Gaden Lha Gya Ma sadhana and other prayers prescribed by Geshe-la.
You are welcome to join us in the magnificent traditional Tibetan temple. For online participants, the prayers will be shown on your screen. Please join as below:
Google meet link here, or
If you prefer, you can use your phone. This is the number:
+61 2 9051 7310 and enter this PIN: 236 522 557#
Vajrayana dedication prayers
Vajrayana students with appropriate empowerments* can also join recitation of Vajrayana dedication prayers at the end of each session.
*If you have the appropriate empowerments and need a copy of the Vajrayana dedication prayers please email events@tushita.org
Courage, wisdom and skilful methods
Throughout his life, the Tibetan Buddhist Society’s Founder, Venerable Geshe Acharya Thubten Loden, continually reminded his students how important it is to recognise the value of this human life.
At the beginning of each new year, Geshela would comment that it is useful to set a positive aspiration for the year ahead, resolving to make the best use of our time on this earth.
Geshe-la’s own life story illustrates how a clear aspiration and a firm resolution to benefit others can bring extraordinary results. Born in a remote part of eastern Tibet, from the very earliest age, Geshe-la aspired to become a monk and study in the great monastic universities of central Tibet. Against his father’s wishes, he joined the local village monastery and despite many years of hardship, eventually realised his aspiration to study at Sera Monastic University in Lhasa.
Forced to flee to India as a refugee in 1959, Geshela continued his studies almost without interruption and received the highest qualifications.
When invited to teach in Australia in 1976, Geshe-la did not hesitate, and quickly set about learning English, so that after a few years he was able to teach without a translator – and a few years after that, to commence writing his nine renowned English language Dharma books.
Geshe-la established the Tibetan Buddhist Society, taught thousands of students at the centres that he founded and arranged the construction of traditional Tibetan temples in Melbourne and Perth.
Geshe-la’s vision was that the Dharma teaching program and charitable activities that he established would continue for centuries.
It’s a measure of the success of Geshela’s activities that they have continued to bring benefit to others in the 12 years since he passed away. Geshe-la’s life story reminds us that through courage, wisdom and skilful methods, anything is possible.